Wednesday, 29 September 2010

I made these as a gift the night before I left Switzerland, all those days ago. After waiting for my internet to be installed back in Oxford I've now got a nasty bug that's slowing me down. I have lots of work to do but all I want to do is curl up on the sofa with a hot water bottle and a cheesy film. That's the reason you've only seen little non-recipe posts in the past few days.

These are great - tiny, tasty and I can persuade myself they're healthy. I made eight little ones in my mini muffin tin and then boxed them up.

Plus they have brown butter. That can only be a good thing.

I found this recipe in a wonderful little French pastry book I found in the post office in Verbier. I couldn't believe I'd found a gem in such an unlikely place! I scaled the recipe down - you need a pair of electric scales for this.

Preheat the oven to 210C. In a small saucepan, brown the butter until the foam subsides and you have dark specks. Put in the fridge while you do the rest. Sieve the flour, almonds and icing sugar into a bowl. Add the egg white and vanilla and beat until smooth. Add the brown butter and beat to combine. Pour into moulds/tin and top each one with an almond. Bake for 10 -12 minutes until golden brown. Cool on a wire rack.